all right everyone. there are so many wonderful things i could say about our next guest. she is a daughter of a mayor, the sister of a mayor, a person was in our partnership with

this organization. make a d with us to significant difference in the fight against climate change and helped to stop the worst recession in modern times and turning it into a depression and led our nation into a strong period of economic growth. she has welcomed mayors and taken time to be with us in our national meetings and committed to being here well before the congressional recess. she will fly back to be here with the u.s. conference of mayors. as we face opportunities related to priorities such as nation's infrastructure challenges and world climate crisis, our nature has our featured guest leading the united states house of

representatives. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. cheers and applause] ms. pelosi: good afternoon everyone. and thank you, may john kerry benjamin and thank you for your warm welcome. and mayor, thank you for your great service to the service of columbia and to the country. let us salute the leadership of all the mayors and thank you for what you have done. and congratulate to tom who has been a resource to this organization for so long.

he was here when my brother was mayor a long time ago and he is still there. that is an applause line. i'll let you know. again, it's a personal and official honor to bring greetings to america's mayors on behalf of the u.s. congress. and welcome our mayor to washington and as a daughter and sister of a mayor, i had a front-row seat for our democracy for our people. cities are the engines of human innovation. your success is the foundation of america's success. you have come at a time when the government is shut down. sadly with this shutdown the white house isn't showing its best. the senseless shutdown is inflicting chaos and in

washington, d.c., on public safety, civil aviation and health and financial safety, every dimension. i know as a daughter and sister, there is a a buffer. you hear the stories, you know the pain, you feel it and know that the shutdown must end and must end now. [applause] on day one and since, the democratic congress has acted to end the chaos and restore to people's lives. this afternoon, the house is passing a package of bipartisan legislation agreed to by the house and senate negotiators to reopen government. [applause] with strong border security initiatives.

this will be our 10th vote -- let's hear it for border security. [applause] ms. pelosi: this will be our 10th vote to reopen government. remember this, in our earlier votes and from the first day that we were sworn in on january 3, on that day, we sent the senate legislation that they had already passed 92-6, something like that. some of it unanimously in committee. we said take yes as an answer. we are sending you the republican senate agenda to the republican senate and they said no. today, we are sending the same packages except -- because some of our house members said, why should we vote with the republicans in the senate what the senate did. why don't we do what we acted

upon. today, taking their suggestion, e are sending the house-senate negotiated bicameral negotiation to consider. we'll see how they vote on their legislation. but it's really unfortunate. not only is the president holding the american people and america ca's workers but republicans in the united states hostage. not all of them. some of them understand what it means in the lives of the american people. congressional democrats support smart, effective border security but we do not support the president holding the american people hostage. there are serious and justified concern that this president would shut down the government.

we must hold the line on this shutdown in government. [applause] there is a purpose to the governance. you know it better than anyone. the public role in meeting the needs of people and people's needs are not being met and when

they are not being working and getting paid for their work. the american people elected a house majority -- that's an applause line -- [applause] ms. pelosi: that will deliver results to the people, opening up new opportunities and improving their lives. we have the opportunity and therefore the responsibility to get to work. redeeming the promise of the american dream tore every family and progress for every community. we must build, build, build. build our human infrastructure, invest in our physical fralm and build our democracy. today, too many hard working families are asking, in this time of innovation and globalization, they are asking if they have a place in the economy of tomorrow. you hear that all the time. we all, mayors, members of

congress must answer them and say, we will have an economy that works for you, for every person in our country. we must build an economy and give all americans the tools they need to succeed in the 21st century, public education, work force development, good-paying jobs and secure pensions. just as we must invest in human infrastructure, we must invest in our physical infrastructure. the house is committed to rebuild america with gene, modern and modern infrastructure shining-sea. [applause] setty osi: and mayor gar in building infrastructure in los angeles in a very major way. investing in our transit systems andmodernizing our airports

provide safe modern learning and say to kids, education is important, you must study and must learn and yet they get a message, we send them to a school that is not up to par for them. mayor palmer and i and trenton, a while back kids learning how to build green infrastructure in the schools there. some of you have taken the lead in aimportant and i have been here when you received your awards. i have been here when you received your awards in the arts. bringing broadband internet to every corner in the country and fixing our broken mortar system. some of our water systems are of 100 years old and built brick and wood. nd building this in a way that

protects clean air and clean water and combats the climate crisis. must embrace the three i's, building our infrastructure in a way that is innovative and inclusive. congratulations on your leadership. [applause] ms. pelosi: we know that you are ready to stop talking and start digging, we want to start seeing dirt flying. i'm optimistic. one subject that i have common ground with the president is infrastructure. 80% of the conversations with the president have been about infrastructure. we have to find our common ground. we are ready and hopefully he is, too. to create good paying jobs and

promote commerce. it's so important, clean air, clean water. we applaud america's mayors to stepping up to develop quality infrastructure for your citizens. the house will do our part to support you and does not shift the burden on to your budget. last year they had a plan that 20% rom 80% federal to local. what? what? are you kidding? must have been. we will -- we want it to happen. and we don't want it to happen in a way that is not predictable, affordable and again for the return. when you are doing infrastructure. i talked about this in my office about what happened in california, the tax initiative. when people see what they get

for any investment in infrastructure, they always support the infrastructure. the congress, though, needs your leadership and partnership to deliver on our shared priorities to drive common progress for all. together we will make america more safe bypassing commonsense legislation to end the epidemic of gun violence. [applause] ms. pelosi: we will make america more american by protecting dreamers. [applause] ms. pelosi: and passing comprehensive immigration reform. we will make america more just by protecting people with pre-existing conditions, expanding access to health care and lowering the price of prescription drugs and defending medicare and medicaid.

[applause] ms. pelosi: we will strengthen our democracy by passing the stopping t by discriminating against the lgbt community. our first law, h.r. 1 to clean end special and interest money in the political scene and empowering people and passing the voting rights act. [applause] ms. pelosi: there are two challenges, actually, three, that i want to close with. here they are. one is the simpleness, the immorality of the disparity of income in our country.

it is so stunning and remarkable. years ago. but it just gets worse. the disparity in income between the c.e.o. and the worker runs about 40%. and when productivity increases, everyone's pay increases, the c.e.o. and the worker. 400%.'s about 350% to more than s earned their employees earned. certainly by now. 400 times the c.e.o. pay to the workers' pay. that has to end. we do not begrudge their success or wealth, but we don't want to

see an exploitation in the work force in order to achieve that. that is part of our for the people agenda to reduce that disparity and increase the purchasing power. the mid approximately-class purchasing power is the most important stimulus of the american economy. secondly, we have to talk about our planet, the denial that some of are in denial. we know that the climate crisis is a crisis in many ways. first of all, the challenges, the air of our children, it is a public issue, clean air, clean water, air pollution. the pope called it air pollution. that drives it home. climate crisis, public health,

climate health, crisis. our economic success to be number one globally in terms of technologies. it's a national security challenge. generals, admirals and national security people come to us and tell us that this is a national security challenge in terms of conflicts that erupts because of limitation of assets, migrations that occur, droughts, weather conditions that challenge the communities that people live in and create unease and unrest. and it is a moral issue. if you believe that this planet is god's creation, i join with our evaluation gel call community. we are must be good stewards of it. if you don't share that view but

you do agree that we owe it to future generation to a responsible way, again, it is a moral issue. that is one of the challenges. have accomplished a climate select committee on climate. this is about creating good paying dream jobs, good paying dream jobs. and ending some of the denials that are there. and secondly, this is something that i think hits home, no pun intended and that is the homelessness issue that exists. have to think in a very drastic way about this. and i'll quote dr. king. dr. king said there is no time

to eninjure to take the drug of gradualism. we cannot think incrementally. we have to think big. and maxine waters is the chairman of the financial services thinks big. we need to be working with you to hear your ideas about how we can address the housing crisis and increase the stock and make everything more affordable and meet the challenge to conscience that homelessness in our country. especially our veterans. well, for everyone, our families. i go back to the veterans, because the veterans are so hurt. a third of our federal work force are veterans. they come from the military, take off the uniform but continue in service to our country in such an important way. we do a disservice to them and do not appreciate the work they

do. and one way to hurt them is to have their credit ratings be lessened because they do not have a paycheck in a timely bills, their rent, their car payment. if you want to hurt veterans, you might have an impact on some of their security clearances. it is affected by your credit ratings. there are so many ways do a disservice to our country and again must end. it will not be easy to deliver on all the priorities for the people. we must embrace innovation, inclusion. we have to establish your model that you have put forth here today. we are coming back to it here.

you know it. infrastructure. innovation, inclusion. so guided by bold thinking and inspired by the priorities that those who i'm honored to serve, we can meet the challenges of our time. i talked this week. we marked the 90 years since the birth of dr. king junior. he was 39 years old and he has a monument on the mall and because of his leadership and his courage. decades from his march in washington. his words ring true. this is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off. now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. [applause] ms. pelosi: i know some of you

will be honored for your work in the arts and thank you for that. one way we can all come together is through the arts. it is an area where we all, shall we say, put aside our differences. we cry and laugh together and irexpire together and gives children confidence they can do confidence if they can be creative. the greatest force for all moral good is imagination. you are masters of it. you have to be every single day. so again, i congratulate those who will be honored for their contributions for the arts. and the mayors recognizing how important it is to infrastructure, inclusion. make the progress of every family in every community and

city across the nation. thank you for your leadership. thank you all. [applause] >> i want to thank speaker pelosi for being here with us. this session is adjourned, guys. let's get to our best practices work shops. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org